Filament feed interrupter



July 22, 1969 J. A. KN EIB 3, ,857

FILAMENT FEED INTERRUPTER Filed Sept. 21, 1967 LL/1o INVENTOR JAN ARDEN KNEIB ATTORNEY United States Patent U.S. Cl. 226-25 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In order to detect undesired filament wraps about a free-wheeling roller, a detector rod is positioned parallel to the central axis of the roller and spaced slightly from the roller surface. Free-wheeling rollers are commonly used for guiding yarn or other filament bundle from one operation to another, as in changing the yarn direction. Wraps on the roller may be caused by filament discontinuities or excessive slack in the travelling yarn. When this occurs, contact of the wrap with the detector rod stops the roller so that the yarn is diverted from its normal forward progress and the presence of a wrap becomes quickly evident. The detector rod is shown held in position, over a free-wheeling roller, by a spring-loaded hinge for easy removal of a wrap from the roller.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to apparatus for the processing of filaments and more particularly to a detecting device for signalling the occurrence of abnormalities in the operation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the production of fibers at high speeds, it is common practice to use rollers. Rollers serve to feed, pull, wind, and change the direction of travel of the filaments. The use of rollers to perform such functions has not been unattended with difficulties. Frequently, upon the occurrence of a break or an excessive amount of slack in travelling filaments, the filaments wrap around the rollers and build up to what is termed a wrap. The wrap must be removed from the rollers before normal operation can be resumed.

In modern fiber processing, involving use of automatic equipment, personal supervision of individual processes is lacking, and it is necessary to employ detectors to signal processing abnormalities to a central station. Such a detector, used to signal the occurrence of a wrap on a driven roller and stop a process in such event, is shown in Furst US. Patent No. 3,169,716, dated Feb. 16, 1965. The drawback of such detectors is their expense of installation and maintenance.

The present invention provides an inexpensive detector SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These provisions are realized in apparatus for processing a bundle of textile filaments wherein the direction of travel of the filaments is changed by frictionally contacting the filaments tangentially against a free-wheeling roller located between a filament feed means and a filament forwarding or take-up means, by the improvement consisting of the provision of a rigid rod mounted parallel to the roller axis and spaced slightly from the roller surface, said spacing being such that upon occurrence of an abnormal build-up of filament wraps on the roller, the wrap frictionally engages said rod causing roller stoppage.

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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS This invention will be better understood in the following description and in the drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic front view of a continuousfilament spinning apparatus using the apparatus of this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a side view of the new wrap-detector rod with its associated feed roller.

FIGURE 3 is a front view of the wrap detector and its associated feed roller after a wrap has occurred.

Although the present invention is herein described in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be recognized that in the light of these teachings many modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art and such modifications are intended to lie within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGURE. 1 shows filaments 11 extruding from spinning pack 10 and converging at roller 12 mounted on machine face 13. Although only one spinneret is shown, many spinnerets may be used in the process. The filaments converge to form an integral yarn 11', then travel partly around free-wheeling roller 15, which changes their direction of travel, and then pass partly around pin 17 and join with incoming tow-band 16 which moves in the direction indicated. Usually many such positions are arranged in series so that tow-band 16 is of the order of l-million denier at the end of the line. Detector rod 14 is mounted in member 13 just above the surface of roller 15. In FIGURE 2, roller 15 is shown with detector rod 14 mounted on machine face 13 just above the surface of the roller. The detector is of rigid construction so that, upon the occurrence of a wrap on roller 15 (depicted by 18 in FIGURE 3), the wrap will frictionally contact the detector and cause stoppage of the roller. Preferably, when handling normal textile filaments, the rod is stainless steel and is 0.25 inch in diameter. It is preferably held in position by a spring-loaded hinge 20, as shown in FIGURE 2, for easy wrap removal from the roller. Preferably, there is a clearance of 0.0625 inch between the lower surface of the rod and the surface of its as sociated roller.

Referring again to FIGURE 1, in conventional operation without detector rod 14, the yarn 11' is drawn from the spinning pack by downstream rollers (not shown) acting on the main tow band, and changed in direction by contact with roller 15. Roller 15 is free wheeling, its sole function being to change the direction of travel of the yarn. Upon the occurrence of a wrap on said roller, the wrap would continue to build up and eventually fall into band 16 to cause difficulties in further processing. However, in operation with detector 14, the wrap will contact the detector bar and the roller 15 will stop. Upon stoppage of the roller 15 with the wrap thereon, the filaments are no longer drawn from the spinning pack but begin to flow freely and drip. Thus, by inspecting the area of the spinning pack, which is in a raised position usually on a second or third floor, an operator can determine quickly that a wrap has occurred downfloor and can immediately take appropriate action to remedy the condition. Thus, by the action of the detector rod, the presence of a wrap is signalled from a nonsupervised area to an area which normally demands personal supervision, the wrap is prevented from falling into the main tow band, and associated difiiculties that would occur in such an event are eliminated.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for processing a bundle of textile fila- 3 ments wherein the direction of travel of the filaments is changed by frictionally contacting the filaments tangentially against a free-wheeling roller located between a filament feed means and a filament forwarding or takeup means, the improvement which comprises a freewheeling roller for changing the direction of filament travel, a rigid rod mounted parallel to the roller axis and spaced slightly from the roller surface, said spacing being such that an abnormal build-up of filament wraps on the roller will frictionally engage the rod and stop 10 the roller.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said rod is of stainless steel, 0.25 inch in diameter, and is held in position by a spring-loaded hinge with a clearance of 0.0625 inch between the lower surface of the rod and the surface of the free-wheeling roller.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,004,728 10/1961 Ihle 226-25 X 3,229,878 1/1966 Hurlbut 226-25 ALLEN N. KNOWLES, Primary Examiner RICHARD A. SCHACHER, Assistant Examiner US. 01. X.R. 66--158; 226-39, 197 

